


Lost and Found

by TrueBlueSonic



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Has some fluff at the end, Hurt/Comfort, Whisper swears to never work with anyone again, and also in some of the IDW issues, except she keeps running into Silver on his Resistance missions, not written as ship but can certainly be seen so :3, this takes place over multiple time periods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27160606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueBlueSonic/pseuds/TrueBlueSonic
Summary: Whisper had lost everything, the Resistance was losing the war. After she saves the life of a grey-furred hedgehog multiple times, and after the Resistance has won and she has avenged her team, she realises she may have found something, too.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1: Lost

**Author's Note:**

> One day, as I was reading IDW!Silver's page on the Sonic Wikia and reading about how Whisper saved his life multiple times during the war, I decided to write a fanfic about that... which got a lot longer than I expected, so this is a multichapter fic now! 
> 
> I legitimately have no idea if I want to make this a shipfic or not... I don't actively ship Whispilver but I accidentally keep writing Very Shippy Moments, so if I make up my mind in the future I'll edit the tags!

She had lost everything.

Well. Perhaps that wasn’t exactly true: she still had everyone’s Wisps, supporting her as she stumbled through the shadows of a war-torn world, murmuring gentle encouragement and telling her it wasn’t her fault. Whisper did not believe them.

Blue had curled up on her shoulder, desolately staring ahead and not having said a single word since she rescued them from Eggman’s facility, keeping quiet as she went to their base to pick up the prototype Wispon Slinger had been so proud of, keeping quiet even as they trudged over broken roads and past cities with no final destination in mind. They had been Mimic’s Wisp, and Whisper figured the betrayal of the Diamond Cutters had hit hardest for this particular constituent of their now-small, damaged team. She thought diamonds were supposed to be unbreakable, unable to be shattered no matter the force that was applied to them. But clearly if the diamond had been cracked from the inside, the tear hidden away in its shiny facets and invisible to the naked eye, eventually enough pressure would destroy it, and Whisper was left with the memories of the broken pieces.

Fear kept her on the move. She had no idea what Mimic was planning, or if Eggman had somehow figured out she was still alive and was aiming to send an attack her way to dispose of her for good as well. At the thought of the dictator who was currently quickly on the rise of taking over the entire planet the fear got replaced by pure, burning anger and agony, before it simmered down and the fright took hold of her being once more, urging her to stay in motion no matter how intense the dizzying tiredness behind her eyelids got. She could not remember the last time she had slept.

The Wisps had asked her what she wanted to do, kind and supportive and nuzzling her face gently as she desperately tried not to let the tears fall. They had suggested joining the Resistance, but Whisper had shot the idea down immediately; she would never work with, never trust anyone again. Not after what had happened when she had let her guard down and fully gave her heart and soul to a group of people she thought she could all trust with her life. Now it was only her and the Wisps, ready to keep defying Eggman in their own way. She had stopped the small, wayward robot attack here and there already, though never staying long enough for the people she rescued to notice her or for members of the Resistance to show up. She convinced herself it was better this way.

Cyan shot up unexpectedly, ripping her away from her thoughts. _There’s someone fighting over there, in that clearing_ , the Wisp murmured, waving their little arm ahead. Now that Whisper focused as well, she could hear the sounds of grinding metal and crashes, though she could not yet see it in the dark of night and through the trees of the forest they were in. Looking for a vantage point where she would be invisible but still able to see the battle, she quickly asked Green to hover her up into the treeline, then quietly hopped closer to the area of interest as if she were a shadow herself. The Wisps quickly hid themselves in their containers that were lining her cape.

Leaning closer, mindful not to fall out of the tree and forcing herself to not think about that other time she was hiding in a tree, the day when everything had gone wrong, Whisper crouched down and peeked out from the leaves to see what was going on. Her eyes laid on a grey-furred hedgehog, though this one looked nothing like what she had seen of Sonic. While Sonic’s quills had been flowing sleekly from the back of his head, these one’s defiantly sprung up from his brow instead, five in total, as if they wanted to defy gravity itself. However she could see he also had two quills similar to Sonic, though definitely longer than the Blue Blur’s. All in all he looked nothing like any hedgehog she had ever laid eyes on before.

The hedgehog was currently surrounded by at least three dozen robots, and Whisper could have sworn there were more lurking just outside her view. The amount of shrapnel and twitching machinery that littered the clearing told her the battle had been going on for a while already. The hedgehog did not seem afraid by how outnumbered he was, though, effortlessly lifting up a handful of robots with some blue-coloured aura that seemed to come from his hands, before making a throwing motion that sent the robots on their way, crashing against the ground and trees. Was that telekinesis? At the thought of psychic powers her mind irrevocably drifted to Claire, whose powers unknowingly had saved her life, and she grabbed the tree branch she was on for support as she suppressed a sob.

Desperately trying to keep her thoughts away from her perished team she focused on the hedgehog once more. He seemed to have made a lot of leeway in his defence, the barrage of robots becoming less with every wave that was destroyed. The hedgehog seemed to become more confident with every successful deflection, whooping with enthusiasm as another gulf went down to his prowess. Though impressed, Whisper feared that his overconfidence would be his end, and thus she decided to stay a bit longer until she knew the hedgehog was safe. No-one else would die on her watch, not if she could do anything prevent it.

And indeed, Whisper saw a looming shadow creep closer out of the corner of her eye. Before the hedgehog could turn around, a huge battleship in the form of a purple pufferfish had risen behind him, readying its ammo to obliterate the nuisance that had destroyed its comrades. Grabbing her Wispon, Whisper wasted no time as Cyan readied themselves, as if they had read her mind. The hedgehog himself had no time to react, spinning around and crying out in surprise as the battleship aimed to fire its cannons, before crying out once more as a pure flash of cyan tore the entire thing cleanly in half. It fell out of the sky instantly, collapsing in pieces a bit wayward of the flabbergasted hedgehog. Cyan made their way back to her discreetly in the chaos, nestling themselves once again into their case in her coat.

Whisper pressed herself down on the branch more, hoping the hedgehog had not realised where exactly the cyan laser had come from. Alas, while luck had been on her side as she had saved the hedgehog’s life it left her the moment he started looking around for his saviour. The hedgehog peeked up into the tree she was currently perched in, and Whisper could have sworn he was staring directly into her eyes. His own eyes were gold, and Whisper thought they managed to look both a bit childish and very mature simultaneously. The hedgehog stared a few seconds more, his eyes narrow and a frown clear on his face, before his intercom started to buzz. The unexpected noise nearly made Whisper jump and reveal her hiding place, grabbing the branch more to steady herself.

“Silver reporting in. The fight went out of order a little bit, but in this area the enemies have been cleared. Over.” All the time he did not remove his eyes from the tree she was hiding in. The intercom buzzed more things that Whisper couldn’t make out. So his name was Silver… it fitted him, she determined.

“I’ll make my way back to HQ now. I’ll see you guys in a bit. Over.”

Silver looked at her perch for a few seconds more, still frowning, before he turned around and left the clearing. Whisper stayed in the tree for what felt like hours, not daring to move even though the hedgehog had long left, before she clambered down and continued her staggering throughout the world. Her body did not stop trembling until long afterwards.

\-----

Amy had cried as he made his way back to Resistance HQ, sobbing desperately as she pulled him in a soul-crushing hug. Knowing that the grief she felt for Sonic was still as raw in her heart as the day they had lost him, and how everyone feared losing another one of their treasured friends to the madman currently ravaging their world, Silver had hugged her back just as hard, realising very well that this fight could have gone very wrong were it not for his mysterious saviour. That had been too close…

Getting the rest of the night off by order of Knuckles, Silver sat himself down on the crates in their storage room, sipping a glass of water (he hadn’t dared to take anything else, resources were already scarce enough as they were, with the Resistance stuck in the middle of a war they were losing badly) and contemplating just what had happened during his battle. He had nearly been struck in his back, losing track of what happened behind him as the enemies fell in droves in the front. But his unexpected assailant had been struck down by what definitely had been a Wisp, which had saved his life for sure.

Looking at where the Wisp had approximately come from, which was one of the trees standing proudly around the clearing, Silver could have sworn he could see a person in there, though it had been too dark for him to make out any of their features. He had stayed for a little while, glaring at the tree while hoping that his saviour would come out and introduce themselves, but no such luck; the clearing stayed quiet and nothing had been revealed, and he had been called back to HQ before he could decide if he wanted to investigate more. But he was absolutely sure that there had been _someone_.

Silver decided that it was best for now to not tell his friends, with how little he had to go on. Well, he decided as his eyes grew tired and he got up to go to sleep, with the way things were going he could definitely use a guardian angel. Even though he still couldn’t fully wrap his head around what exactly had happened, he knew for sure that he would see his saviour again. 


	2. Chapter 2: Almost Like Last Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whisper nearly relives the moment where everything went wrong, and Silver makes both bad and good life choices.

It was about a week later when she encountered the hedgehog again. Whisper had caught wind of an Eggman base tucked away at the edges of his of newly-built technological marvel Metropolis, tiny for his doing but certainly an asset to his operations regardless. If she wanted to start small and unnoticeable and not risk running into anyone who’d distract her like the hedgehog had, this would be the perfect place to begin her mission to defy Eggman by herself.

When she arrived, however, she discovered to her shock that she hadn’t been the only one with knowledge of this place after all. Out of all people who could have been there, it was Silver who was sneaking through the undergrowth just outside the base. The hedgehog was clearly on high alert but not paying attention to what was going on behind him, where she was hiding some distance away. She got the feeling he had problems with watching his back.

She clenched her hands into fists with a small growl hidden behind her mask. This was supposed to be _her_ mission, the one where she did everything on her own as she gathered every bit of information she could before destroying the base! Why did he have to show up here right now, of all times and places?! Still, she knew she couldn’t leave him. The last time they met he had barely gotten away with his life, if only because she intervened… Now that she was here, she might as well watch from the distance and help out when needed, unseen and unnoticed by all. No-one would lose their life again because of her ineptitude.

As the hedgehog arrived at the edge of the heavily guarded entrance of the base with her hot on his tail, he stopped advancing for a moment, crouching away in the undergrowth while clearly pondering what to do. With the swarms of robots patrolling the area he would be caught for sure if he went for a frontal offence; stealth would have to be his saving grace.

Whisper choked back a gasp as one second he was sitting right in front of her nose, and the next second he was _gone_. Frantically tracing her eyes over the clearing – only Sonic could possibly move that fast, and he had been defeated weeks prior! – she thought she could make out a few flickers of teal from the shadows inside the entrance. She gulped. Everything she knew about the base and Eggman in general told her it would be filled to the brim with death traps, and the fool had walked right into it… Silver was in danger. _Just like them_.

With her experience as a scout for her fallen team she could easily figure out the patterns of the guard robots. Taking a deep breath and making sure the characteristic mask was pressed firmly against her face, she noiselessly darted between search lights and metal monstrosities as she neared the base. With the cover of the night and her dark cloak she went by unnoticed, carefully slipping between the robots that towered just in front of the entrance. Keeping her breath shallow, she made sure her footsteps did not create a single sound as she rapidly tiptoed further inside, pushing away any and all memories of how often she had done this before. She had made it into the base, but where was Silver?

Her question was answered when a large crash and a muffled cry, followed near-instantly by the distant sound of fighting, reached her ears. Keeping her steps light she rushed to the place of origin as quickly as she could, Wisps and Wispon at the ready. It sounded just like when…! No, she couldn’t think about that now. She had to focus, for Silver.

When she reached the end of the hallway she cursed under her breath. The door from beyond which the ruckus came had been locked, and she couldn’t see a single slit or control panel to open it. Silver had been trapped in there, and her fears had become true. With a spike of pure terror at the realisation she staggered back, her mind entirely empty as she desperately tried to keep out the memories from the live feed presented to her on that fateful day. It took the Wisps multiple tiny slaps to her face to bring her back to the present, and with a pained gasp she pushed everything down again and tried to focus on the task at hand.

Looking around for a means to enter, Whisper’s eyes fell on a vent up in the wall. Running entirely on autopilot, she broke it apart quickly enough through a smash with the help from Blue, and Green lifted her up as she clambered inside. She had no idea what the defences of the base were like inside, all she could hope for was that the robots that undoubtedly guarded the hallways did not notice the gaping hole that now adorned the wall.

The vent was cramped, much more cramped than she would have liked. Crawling through it was a struggle with her coat, which kept getting trapped underneath her knees and elbows as she progressed. Despite the difficult movements, the tiny space, and the dust that kept tickling her nose she continued, mostly undeterred despite for the fear that held her in its grip still. Her sharp ears followed the increasingly loud noise of gunshots and bangs, laced by the occasional cry. If it was one of pain, surprise, or triumph, she couldn’t tell. All she knew was that Silver was in trouble, and she would save him or die trying. No-one else would die in this manner, not if she could do anything to help it.

Her scuffling through the vent quickly brought her to another opening. Through the tiny slits she could make out flashes of teal that lit up the smoke billowing through the room. At least that meant Silver was both still alive and on his feet. No matter how hard she pushed against the cover of the vent, though, she was unable to make the thing budge. Desperation made her actions frantic. She couldn’t fail now, not this time, not when she was so close!

 _I’ll break it_ , she heard a tiny voice murmur in her ear, and she moved her head a bit to look at Cyan. Slack-jawed Whisper glanced over the cover a bit more critically now. With Cyan and the Wispon they could easily break it, but the crash would be loud, and it could even destabilise the whole wall. Still… it was her only option. With the fight getting more hectic with every passing moment, the decision was made quickly.

“Are you _sure_..?” she whispered as her tiny cyan-coloured friend simply nodded and zipped into the Wispon. Clumsily crawling backwards, trying to put as much space between herself and the cover, she put a trembling finger on the trigger. With a single deep breath her finger moved back, and Cyan blasted the thing clean out of the wall. She quickly covered her face with a hand as she tried to suppress a few coughs at the cloud of dust that got sprayed over her. Despite the loud noise echoing all around her, there had been no changes in the sound of the battle; all of the participants had probably assumed the crash came from the fight itself.

Ignoring the itching of her eyes while crawling forwards again, Whisper peeked out of the opening. Now that she could at least partially put her head out she could properly take in the room. It was quite small, and absolutely littered to the brim with robot parts. Despite that, many more were making their way on the ground or through the air towards Silver, who stood in the middle of the room with a defiant, slightly desperate angle to his posture. Even from the side Whisper could hear his pants and see the sweat glistening on his body, as well as the blood that dripped from his side. Clearly he had been struck at least a few times already. 

Wasting no time, she aimed her Wispon the best she could and set the Wisps to work. Every time Silver’s back was turned towards her little nook another one of the aliens was sent flying, easily destroying whole swaths of robots and quietly making their way back to her in the chaos of the fight. With her help the robot horde decreased in size much more quickly and safely than Silver could ever have destroyed them on his own, and Whisper signalled the Wisps to stay behind her in the vent as the hedgehog finished off the last handful.

The sudden silence reverberated through the room, a stark contrast between the clamour it had contained moments prior. All that could be heard was Silver’s gasps of pain as he very slowly turned around, poking at and taking in every heap of scrap metal with his hands glowing. Clearly he wasn’t going to let his guard down so easily, and she inwardly released a sigh of relief at his perceptiveness in this moment.

The relief was lost and her entire body froze as he turned towards her corner and his eyes fell on the vent she was hiding in. Just like last time they met, she had the feeling he was staring right into her soul, eyes narrow as he looked right into her hiding spot. Neither of them moved, the hedgehog merely staring without trying to come closer and her heart almost beating out of her chest as she could only lay and wait.

With Silver not taking his eyes off the vent for a second, she watched with bated breath as his hand moved up to his ear. Unable to stir even the tiniest bit, she stared at his mouth as he began talking.

“Silver here. This mission was a bust; I got ambushed really badly and-“

With the silence of the room Whisper could easily make out what the worried, higher-pitched voice of a girl said over the intercom. “ _What?!_ Get out of there right now!”

“But there might be information here…!” Silver protested with an upset frown flowing onto his face, but whoever was talking to him was having none of it. “Your life is more important than any information! Leave the base, and that’s an order!”

“…Yes, Amy.” With a sigh he dropped his hand again, and the intercom went quiet. With trembling hands Whisper thought back to a time wherein she had been lovingly scolded like that for being careless, making her way back to their own base to be embraced with tender hugs from Claire, teasing compliments from Slinger, worried questions from Smithy as he bandaged her injuries and _him_ , shifting into the craziest combinations of colours and people they could come up with to distract her as her wounds were treated. The sob that slipped past her lips could be heard throughout the entire room.

For a few intricate seconds Silver kept staring at where she sat, the frown slowly being replaced by something akin to sympathy, before he raised his hand again and… waved? A tiny smile made its way on his face with the movement. The whole moment lasted not even a second, but Whisper felt her entire body turn to stone as the hedgehog turned around and awkwardly stumbled to the door, a blood-soaked glove pressed to his side. Despite his injuries he had sustained in the battle Silver easily lifted up the door that had kept him locked in with his telekinesis. It got lowered again with nary a sound, the last spots of teal colour dissipating as Whisper laid in the vent, tears pooling in her eyes as she wept over what she had lost.

\----

His saviour had been crying.

With a sigh Silver tried to make out the patterns of dirt on the ceiling again, but with how often his eyes had trailed over them already they had all blurred together into incomprehensible forms and shapes hours ago. It did nothing to distract him from the pain of his injured side, nor from the thoughts that were whirling through his head. He knew for sure he had seen a shape in the vent, somewhat resembling the head of a person. And even more, the sob that had reached his ears had not lied. There had been a living, breathing being inside of there, and they had just saved his life once again.

The flicks of light he had witnessed in the corners of his eyes during the height of the battle had only affirmed what he had suspected before: there had been Wisps involved as well. The little aliens worked together closely with the Resistance, mostly serving as ammo for their Wispons. Still, his saviour was unlikely to be working with the organisation Silver was a core member of... If they were, why would they not try to interact with him?

The time traveller would have gone and investigate, but something held him back in the moment. In the forest his saviour also hadn’t tried to reach out to him, and here they joined the desperate battle he suffered through from the sidelines only. Maybe they were just really shy, or someone who was supposed to be working with Eggman but double-crossed the doctor, choosing to stick to the shadows as to not put a huge target on their back? Everything was a possibility at this point.

Silver hoped that with his little wave the first seeds for actual contact were planted. If they did not want him to see them in person, he would respect that for now. No, he had done the right thing by keeping his distance, yet also showing his goodwill. If they had found a way inside the building and locked room they would most likely also find a way out, and with his injuries and Amy’s wrath a quick retreat had been a necessity anyway. Still, he couldn’t help but cherish the thought that there was someone watching out for him, someone to look after him in a war-torn world where the Resistance lost more ground and comrades with each passing day. A guardian angel of sorts… Everyone could use one right now, and he as the Resistance’s main fighter most of all.

Closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing, Silver decided to first get out of their little hospital wing where Amy and Knuckles had confined him, and then try to see if he could find out more about his guardian angel. It definitely seemed like they were in dire need of some form of support, and the hedgehog was more than ready to pay back his debts to them in whatever way possible. And then hopefully, he wishfully thought to himself as he drifted off into sleep, he would be able to meet them in person at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I wrote for this, and I have to say, it was quite tough to come up with something! Still, I like what it became in the end!💪
> 
> So, the situation with Silver is basically how the Diamond Cutters met their end, so I tried to let Whisper reflect on that a lot! It has got to be pretty traumatising for her!
> 
> One smol explanation: Silver could lift the door up with his PK (as seen in IDW Sonic issue 8), but in the middle of an ambush he simply had no time to concentrate enough to do so!


	3. Chapter 3: To Save The World

Somehow, in situations like these, she always ended up in trees. It was a weird yet consistent lot in life she seemed to suffer from: she had lost the Diamond Cutters while perched in one, had saved lives while hiding inside a multitude of branches during the heights of the war, and had met the person who was her partner for this particular mission from one as well. “Promise me you’ll be careful,” Silver had whispered as he neared Zor with her safely held up in his powers, and “If anything goes south, whatever it is, save yourself first. Don’t worry about me.” The moment he had placed them on a sturdy branch and had turned away to look for their adversary she had sworn to herself that either both of them would fall here or make it. She would never turn her back to someone again.

“Do you see him?” the hedgehog quietly asked from where he sat crouched beside her on the branch, leaning against her shoulder as he brushed a few leaves to the side. Peeking past him her eyes fell on the flying robot the Zeti was using to carry himself around through the air, safe from the Zombots that trawled on the ground below them. Sonic had explained that each Zeti was carrying the Emerald on their person, giving them the ability to control thousands of infected at once in whatever way they pleased. It gave the two heroes a grave disadvantage if they needed to fight in the open, even if Silver himself could fly through the air too. With such distance between them and the monster striking the Emerald away from Zor would be near-impossible, let alone acquiring it before the monster did once more or before it tumbled to the virus-covered ground.

“Yes. No clear shot. Can you grab the Emerald from here?” she responded, curt and to the point and quiet as always. The Wisps shifted in their containers lining their coat, all ready for the confrontation too.

“I can’t be that precise, but I can be direct. Cover me!” Silver murmured, giving her hand one last squeeze as she voiced an affirmation before lifting himself out of the tree, charging directly at their adversary. Whisper gulped; she herself would have attempted to stealthily sneak much, much closer and steal the Emerald first as opposed to beginning with a full-fledged fight, but if she had learned anything in the months she had aided the hedgehog from the shadows it was that the two of them used very different means to operate in general. All she could do was give her support while hidden away this time as well and hope it would suffice once more. Their track record was solid enough to give her a little bit of faith, at least.

“Listen up!” the psychic cried out as he grasped the sulky monstrosity in his powers, Whisper studying their every move from her relatively save heaven. If there was only one Zombot who’d discover her, and make its way up or even brush against the tree… No, she couldn’t think about that. She had to believe in Silver, and trust the two of them and her Wisps would all get out of here in one piece. All would be lost instantly otherwise. “I come from a future _ruined_ by the selfish ambitions of you and your pack!” Silver continued his rant, passion and anger flowing out of his every movement as his powers wildly whirred around him. “Give up the Emerald, or I’ll make you pay for the future _today!_ ”

Instead of appearing intimidated by the seething hedgehog intimidated the Zeti… smiled? Twirling the bright red rose around in his claws he slowly turned towards Silver, sending the hedgehog a grin that made Whisper sick to her stomach. “How long have you been practicing that line, kid?” Zor sneered, dramatically swirling the rose through the air as if he was conducting an orchestra hiding in the shadows that was waiting for its maestro’s sign to attack. The Zombots fit that description surprisingly well, and the wolf dared hope that there were none around that could fly. They’d be in so much _more_ danger… “So what I’m doing now leads to a future of misery and destruction?” the Zeti continued, smile only broadening. Both Whisper and Silver growled at the deranged cackles that began to spill out of his mouth, the former grasping her Wispon extra strongly as she looked for the perfect shot with the Wisps tense against her side. Their opponent was moving too much for her to take aim, and she felt frustration crawl under her skin. “It’s all I could ever hope for,” the purple-haired monster meanwhile sneered between his laughs, and with a cry Silver flung himself at him. The fight for the Emerald and the fate of the world had begun.

When giving them their briefings Sonic had described Zor as ‘weird’… A more fitting description would be ‘utter lunatic’, Whisper thought to herself from where she followed the battle, mask securely pressed against her face and ready to be slipped down in less than a second. “Struggle. Wriggle. Writhe and cry. You can’t escape. Soon you’ll be mine,” the Zeti eerily sung from the robotic owl he was riding, and the wolf could barely choke back a gasp as the air around him _shifted_. Dark blue shapes she could not find the origin of materialised around him, twirling through the air like he had done with his rose. They flung themselves at Silver, the hedgehog barely able to dodge out of the way with his powers as a startled gasp slipped out of his mouth. No matter what he did he seemed to be unable to get a good grip on Zor, the Zeti either easily breaking free or one of his shadowy clones taking the hit… They needed a new plan, and fast.

Noiselessly shifting herself into a better position Whisper snuck her hand into one of the pockets of her cape, grabbing four pale, glass-like crystals which she handed to four of the Wisps. “Be careful-!” she urged them, the aliens all chirping softly in confirmation as they flew away from her and Cyan curled up inside the weapon. Placing the mask firmly on her face she put her finger on the trigger of her Wispon, minutely shifting it around as the Wisps strategically placed themselves in the air. If Silver could somehow manage to get Zor to stop moving for even a second, she’d have a clear shot right at the Emerald. 

Her ear flicked as the drowning, manic voice of the monster sounded through the clearing once more. “You’re Silver, right?” he asked, pressing one of his claws against his lips as the hedgehog snarled, blocking attack after attack sent at him by the clones. “I spent a lot of time online, browsing the Eggnet. You’re really from the future, huh? How far ahead?” the Zeti asked, brow furrowing minutely.

It was meant to be a distraction, and Whisper suppressed a grimace as Silver fell for it hook, line and sinker. “ _Hngh!_ I dunno- A couple hundred years or so?” he retorted, crushing one of the clones in his powers. It was clear he needed his full attention for the battle; the fact that he tried to _talk with their opponent in the middle of a fight_ would give him a severe disadvantage, Whisper growled inwardly. Quietly she urged her Wisps to position themselves more quickly through her mask.

Zor laughed manically once more, easily twirling away from Silver’s powers as the hedgehog threw a fist of psychic energy at him. “And you said our devastation is _still_ felt _that_ far in the future?” he snickered as Silver growled even more, laughter only increasing at the angry face of the hedgehog. “The bleakness! The misery of it all! I can hardly stand it!”

“You’re seriously messed up! How can you _be_ this way?!” the time traveller objected, foregoing distance in favour of throwing himself at the jeering monster with his own powers and an angry yell. While he did manage to grasp Zor fully this time it was bound to go wrong; Whisper winced and Silver cried out when two of the shadowy clones grasped him from behind, pinning his arms to the side as he futilely kicked his legs in an attempt to free himself. It was always his back that was his undoing… 

“Tch. How can _you_ be so disgustingly and heroically selfless?” Zor scoffed, the hold Silver had on him broken the moment the hedgehog lost his concentration.

Whisper took a deep breath to focus. Silver was in huge trouble, but in all the consternation the Wisps had put themselves perfectly in place, and Zor had stopped his manic twirling and laughing as he focused all his attention on Silver. This was the perfect shot she had been waiting for. Leaning closer she aimed for the first crystal Blue was carrying, but as she tightened her finger around the trigger Silver’s words made her falter. “Because _I_ have _faith_ in others. I believe things will get better,” her friend sneered right back, a pained yet defiant grin on his face as he stared directly at Zor. “And because I have a guardian angel watching over me!”

That was the cue and encouragement she needed: with a single press of her finger Cyan got fired out of her Wispon, ricocheting between the crystals Blue, Green, Orange, and Pink were holding up and filling the air with dozens of light blue laser beams that kept rebounding among the tiny gems. As far as shots went this one had been perfect; the two clones holding Silver back dissipated as Cyan tore right through them, and Zor himself cried out in surprise as the Chaos Emerald he was carrying on his chest got pushed right out of its vessel. With a beaming smile that made her knees feel weak Silver grabbed the Emerald, lovingly shrouding it in his powers and pulling it towards him, before his eyes got filled with ire and disgust. Throwing out his hands he crushed the owl-shaped mech with his powers before Whisper could blink, and with another cry Zor got knocked right of and fell down… in the middle of the Zombot-invested fields that spread out beneath the sky.

“Silver!” was all she could murmur as the grey-furred hedgehog flew over to her, the Emerald glowing like a star in the sky as the light of his powers got reflected in it. Before the other could say anything she pulled him in a firm hug, burying her head in his shoulders as she suppressed her tears. “I thought I was going to lose you,” she whispered, the events of just now catching up to her and filling her with dread. That truly had been too close.

Underneath their perch she could hear Zor call out, demanding they helped him as the Zombots shambled closer and closer, and she snarled as the hedgehog growled and clutched her closer. But then both she and Silver faltered as Zor’s plea for help suddenly became more akin to his usual deranged speech, the Zeti’s manic laughter echoing through the clearing as the Zombots trampled over him and the virus crawled up his skin.

“…We should leave,” Silver murmured, staring quietly at the shape on the ground whose final whoops and hoots died out as his body and mind got taken over by the Metal Virus completely. Grasping the Emerald and her Wisps Whisper let herself be lifted up in his arms, carefully running a hand over his cheek as she felt him tremble against her. It was clear the events of just now had more than just merely disturbed him, the realisation of the danger they had escaped from catching up to the psychic also. Silver weakly smiled as the Wisps chirped quietly, nuzzling against his chest or clutching his quills as they rose towards the portal formed by the Warp Topaz. 

“They’re thanking you,” Whisper quietly assured him as the whirling green gateway came closer and closer. “And… thank you from me, too. You were very brave out there.” Shyly she stared at her lap, where the beautiful light blue Emerald laid sparkling. She had heard many tales of the mystical gemstone, but to see one up close, let alone hold it… Carefully she ran her finger over the perfectly-cut surface, hoping that it could feel her gratefulness too.

“Me? Nah, that was nothing,” Silver grinned bashfully. “You and your Wisps are the real heroes here! You were amazing, I couldn’t have done it without you!”

“Heh,” Whisper grinned timidly at his praise, leaning against him a bit more as she shifted her attention to the areas surrounding them that were suffering so. Silver had lifted them to right in front of the portal, both of them ready to go back to Angel Island with their mission a success. Whisper could only hope that the others could say the same, unable to bear losing yet another friend to Eggman’s virus of despair and pain. Though, as the small group of heroes got swallowed up by the bright green light, she felt surprisingly confident that they would soon be able to put an end to all this misery. As long as Silver was here to fight for everyone, there was no doubt in her mind that the world would be saved very soon indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!! :D Over the literal months wherein I've not worked on this story I've had a few people ask if I would ever continue it, and today I felt inspired, so I wrote a new chapter! Even better, the final chapter is partially written as well... but to be quite honest, I can't promise when I'll upload it😂 I hope you enjoy and have a great week!
> 
> Note: dialogue at least partially copied from IDW Sonic issue 26 and 28 :3 Originally this chapter wasn't in it at all and I was writing the final chapter instead, but I thought it'd be fun to include it!


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